Workmen's advocate., 1887-04-09
THE END OF PROFITS.
BY DR. A DOUAI.

private capital, profits, dividends and interest, capital itself will not disappear; it will continue to exist as common capital for the common use and for the benefit of all.
 At present, it is true, capital is the accumulation of profits stolen under legal protection from the workers. It is that portion of the proceeds of labor which is not con- sumed, but reserved for future pro- duction by expIoiters of labor. But in itself it is good thing, and be- comes bad only in the wrong hands. Human society cannot and will not retire on the accumulation of the fruits of past labor; it will, on the contrary, render that accumulation richer and more productive; but not in the private ownership of those who have no rightful claim to it.
 In a Socialistic State some accu- mutation of the products of labor is indispensable in order partly to pro- vide for the wants of an increasing population, and partly for a greater enjoyment of life for everybody. But this kind of accumulation will be voluntary offering on the part of all the workers, not, as now, robbery under the guise of law. Our posterity will have so many more means of accommodating riches than most of us have now, that they may be able to found public theaters, museums, concert halls, libraries, high schools, galleries of statuary and pictures and collections of scien- tific and artistic objects in profusion, even in sparsely inhabited regions. But they will tax themselves for these purposes with the greatest lib- erality; the means thereto will not be insidiously embedded through tariffs and revenue laws, by piece meal from the people without knowledge of how costly the govern ment is to them.
 Very great accumulations even may in future time be necessary to render every acre of soil doubly or trebly productive by subsolling, draining, irrigation and the use of fertilizers so as to support dense population; to economize every waste of products and of human labor force, to guard everybody to the farthest limit from preventable accidents and diseases.
 But these means will be cheerfullv appropriated, and without stint. The best possible education will be at the command of the parents of every child; but not as charity; 1t will be a necessity for everyone and so highly appreciated as to be urgently demanded, even at any sac l IllCc Ol IllcdIlS.
 All this will be possible simply be- cause the inventions and discoveries necessary to it are either already in existence, or on the eve of arising, and the material means-call it money, if you please-may be afford ed simply by utilizing for the com mon benefit what is now wasted, destroyed, dispersed, without reason and need.
 Who can doubt the truth of this assertion, if he knows that of all the net proceeds of labor, nowadays, one half goes to capital, and that two-thirds of all persons able to work either do not work at all, or to no really useful purpose, or with very great waste of productive force i? Who can doubt it, if he is acouaint ed with the undeniable fact, that, perhaps, one-half of all men born into this world die, before they have paid for the cost of their birth and education, from preventable causes, or because they have lived only to the detriment of the community!
 But 1t will be objected that all the improvements suggested will be DOS slble only at the sacrifice of personal liberty. We consider this objection so important that We propose to de- vote another article entirely to this topic.